Auto Specialties Mfg. Co.

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• I have a auto jack with markings auto spec mfg co patented july 20 1928 st joseph mich
  drednaut twin lift no37. can any
  body give some info or history on this jack what its worth when it was made thank you

• My brother-in-law has a 4000# floor jack Model #7600 manufactured 4/1970. He needs some seals to repair it. Do you have any or can you tell me where to find some?

• I just found an employee badge from the Windsor plant with the number 216 stamped on it. Does anyone know how old it would be or who the emplyee could be? Thanks.

• i have a drednaut auto jack no64 does anybody no about what year it was made st joseph mich...windsor ont is on the side r.j 130 thank you

• Hi Bruce L. I'm sure you won't remember me but you probably remember my Dad Basil W. He started on the furnaces in the mid 40's and became watchman until the plant closed (just weeks short of his retirement date). I remember Mr Cantelon, Bert Foote, Joe P and so many others. Yes, they had a few co. cars, made other parts besides jacks, the junk pile belonged to the plant (scrap came by railcar) and the co. fishing camp was on Clear Lake in Muskoka. I spent so much time there growing up, the men taught me how everything worked, how never to touch the huge presses, how to chew the salt tablets, to squint when the pour was on,to use the "modern electron microscope" in the lab. I watched with sadness the transformation from a manual process to all automated. I even learned to read the "secret" blueprints. All great childhood memories of good men working for a good company.

• I can't comment on the value of your pieces (jacks) but I can tell you a bit about the foundry. My grandfather Albert F Dexel was the 'right hand man' to the owners --- the Tiscornia family.'Dex' as he was known was called down there at all times of the day or night, and held many titles and positions over the years --- it was different back in the 50's and 60's than companies are today.

  Anyway, grandpa Dex would take me down there on Saturdays (everybody in the place knew Dex) and we would 'make the 'rounds' as he would call it. I even learned to drive a stick shift in one of their day shift parking lots in 1969-1970 ..... Dex had access to all the company salesman's cars. He should, he made the deals to buy every one of them since sometime in the late 40's The St Joseph plant was literally 'next door' to the original Whirlpool machine shop (and one of their main assembly plants) for washing machines --- which started their company (The Upton family started Whirlpool as far as I know) One half block down 'Graves Street' next to the Whirlpool machine shop was the front guard gate for Auto Specialties

  Didn't remember the Windsor plant, but its been 50 years since I started going down there on Saturdays. There was also a plant on Riverside Rd in Benton Harbor Mi (I can still see some of the slab and the barb-wire fence where the plant was demolished) and also another small plant in Hartford Mi (about 20 miles from St Joseph / Benton Harbor) There is still some form of an operation on Pipestone Rd in Benton Harbor to this day, but no foundry.

  By the mid-late 70's the foundry closed and eventually was demolished. Wish he was still alive ----- many, many great stories.

  I believe the company also made brake parts castings, but I can't remember if there were brake master cylinders and wheel cylinders made there. The Jacks were certainly their main product as I recall.

  my apologies for such a long-winded post ----- just couldn't resist :-)

  Andy West
  stude1954@gmail.com

• BTW, I am not a member of this forum ----just happened to see a post and put in my $.02

• I'm not aware of any membership and it's not exactly a forum (though I've read on here that there was one, at one point). I enjoyed reading your story and I didn't realize that Whirlpool was started in Michigan, and yes by the Upton brothers, according to Wikipedia. Thanks for sharing!

• Yeah, Andrew had a forum up for a brief time, but nobody really participated. Shame too, I enjoyed it, at least lol

• It was the Riverside plant in Riverside Michigan. My father Gerald Flanery worked there almost 20 years until it closed down in 1979 or 80. There's also a Plant in Hartford Michigan. The plant in Riverside is Gone now. They tore it down and there's nothing but a field there now.